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I HAVE often wondered what it must feel like to be one of the two most powerful men one day, and wake up to the reality that power has slipped away at midnight.

This is what happens to the army chief and the chief justice on retirement. Both of them wield enormous, unchecked power, and are answerable to nobody. But when they doff their uniform and robes, they abruptly cease to be the centre of media attention, and their vast domain is reduced to the walls of their homes.

True, they are sent off with a large number of perks and benefits, but their achievements — such as they are — are soon forgotten. Some have formed political parties to stay relevant and in the public eye. Few remember Gen Aslam Beg’s think tank, Friends. And who recalls his Awami Qiyadat Party? The same is true of Iftikhar Chaudhry’s Pakistan Justice and Democratic Party of which it was said that the membership could fit into a tonga.

The broken system of justice should have been the focus.

Now that Saqib Nisar has hung up his judicial robes after years of extraordinary interventions into virtually every aspect of executive jurisdiction, it remains to be seen how he will spend his twilight years as a nobody. He is on record as offering to live in a tent to guard the equipment that he had expected to arrive to construct Mohmand dam. But that project has run into a slight problem as the donations total a mere Rs9 billion as against an estimated cost of around a thousand billion. At this rate, it will take 100 years to collect the required money, even assuming that the price tag will not escalate in this period. So he need not pack his camping gear just yet.

For years now, there has been endless talk of accountability. Politicians and bureaucrats have been accused, arrested and jailed for misusing their positions and power to make money. But what about the generals who drag us into pointless wars with their massive cost in blood and treasure? Or judges who block the privatisation of loss-making state enterprises, thereby forcing taxpayers to cough up hundreds of billions in ongoing subsidies?

I hope Mr Nisar has cultivated a hobby, as retirement from a powerful position demands a painful transition to real life. He can, of course, re-read the headlines he made during his tenure through his constant suo motu interventions. Apart from his dam initiative, he inspected hospitals and read the riot act to the owners of private schools. In between, he raised the price of bottled water, jailed a former prime minister, and inserted the Supreme Court in Pakistan’s political arena. So when he retired, the collective sigh of relief from opposition politicians as well as bureaucrats reached me all the way to Sri Lanka.

Clearly, Mr Nisar’s heart is in the right place: who doesn’t think children shouldn’t have clean drinking water? Or that the police ought to stop human rights violations? In fact, life for most Pakistanis is one long violation of basic rights.

But the way to improve the situation is surely through strengthening state institutions, not weakening them. By issuing ill-informed rulings and orders about everything from PIA’s logo to the quality of milk, the executive was pushed into a corner. At the drop of a hat, he sent the accountability bureau to hound educationists and civil servants who had been accused on TV chat shows.

It is no secret that our bureaucracy is inefficient and often corrupt. But micro-managing government departments with insufficient knowledge of how the system actually works is a recipe for disaster. This shotgun approach to management has left no lasting solutions, but it has ruined careers and scarred our political landscape.

However, my biggest objection to his hyperactive activism is that it distracted him from his basic function of supervising the workings of the judicial system. By his own admission, he achieved no improvements in the functioning of the lower courts where close to two million cases are pending.

Judges routinely fix dozens of hearings for a day, and their courts are full of lawyers, witnesses and plaintiffs in cases that are bound to be postponed. Thus, judgements can take a generation to be delivered.

When the Pakistani Taliban took over Swat a dozen years ago, they were initially welcomed because they delivered quick justice, something our courts have never been accused of. In fact, people often refuse to admit they witnessed a crime for fear of being sucked into our court system, and then be accused of contempt of court if they missed a hearing.

This is the reality of our lower judiciary — and top courts are not much better. Had Saqib Nisar wished to leave a lasting legacy, he should have tried to fix this broken system. Instead, he played to the gallery, and all of us are worse off as a result.

"I HAVE often wondered what it must feel like to be one of the two most powerful men one day, and wake up to the reality that power has slipped away at midnight." - I do not wonder. I have read many biographies and auto biographies.

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Wellwisher

Feb 09, 2019 08:26am

Sir, not a word about generals.

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Sehar

Feb 09, 2019 10:02am

Author always writes insightful articles full of wisdom. Thanks dawn for providing a forum to the sane voices.

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MQ

Feb 09, 2019 10:28am

Irfan Saheb is spot on here.

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Reality Bites

Feb 09, 2019 10:37am

Easier said than done.

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Faisal Naqvi

Feb 09, 2019 11:09am

Agree with every word in this article.

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Khan

Feb 09, 2019 11:16am

Sane advice for others

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Shabbir Sharif

Feb 09, 2019 11:22am

He has left his legacy behind in the vivid colors by legalizing the occupation of
Chak Shahzad Farms.

He did serve well to the killers of Perveen Rehman Shaheed, who was a major obstacle in the way of Land Mafia in Uniform.

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Parvez

Feb 09, 2019 11:24am

Absolutely spot on.

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Jawaid

Feb 09, 2019 12:09pm

A true opportunist who kept calling the shots as directed by a powerful institution and helped drag our country economically.

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Riaz Ahmad

Feb 09, 2019 12:39pm

It was far more importent to bring the top lawless mafia thugs and thieves with in the ambit of the law, that is the choice CJ made. He did not have the time to bring about judicial reforms at the same time. Once these thugs and thieves are put behind bars, it will eas the task of judicial reforms.

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Zak

Feb 09, 2019 02:09pm

@Shabbir Sharif, The person who ordered Parveen Rehmans murder was the local water tanker mafia. Her locality mapping was disenfranchising him from his water source.

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Shakir Lakhani

Feb 09, 2019 02:26pm

Instead of doing what he should have done, he did everything he shouldn't have done. But then, the country is full of people who interfere in the work of others, and never improve their own little world.

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Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad

Feb 09, 2019 02:48pm

100 percent agreed that the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Islamic Republic of Pakistan had a golden chance to leave an everlasting legacy as a hero, if he could have effected much needed and long awaited judicial reforms in the country's lower courts, where millions of outstanding and unresolved cases are lying since decades, thus causing great anguish and anxiety for the ordinary people.

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Ali Sabir

Feb 09, 2019 04:09pm

Thank you Dawn for saying that if justice Nisar wanted to leave a legacy he should have fixed the broken justice system. That is an honest evaluation.

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RAZA

Feb 09, 2019 05:20pm

It's difficult to adjust.

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Sifarish

Feb 09, 2019 06:16pm

He did what he could do.

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zulfiqar

Feb 09, 2019 07:21pm

Well written, However, the problem is when they are in position, little is said with the fear of contempt.

The fixing of legal system is amazingly simple, we all need to accountable, we need to make our actions accountable, and we need to promise to ourselves that we are going to tell the truth, ensure our children tell the true, and never give or let any one give a false testimony. Most harsh punishment for those who deceive and lie.

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Asif Ali

Feb 09, 2019 10:28pm

Great, with love and thanks.

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tariq

Feb 10, 2019 12:26am

I had never seen a CJ act so rightly. His job was very because of NS and Zardari and looting public. All I can say the writer writes about things that please's him not the country!

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P Joseph Raju

Feb 10, 2019 12:57am

This is a great article. Everybody wants to be somebody, often at the cost of other people. Leaders use and abuse people for their own vested interests, especially for power and control. When the power has no checks and balances, people are often the collateral damage.

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Abbasshah

Feb 10, 2019 01:11am

Means negligence of duty,Very well said.

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No-Name

Feb 10, 2019 01:20am

The main problem is that ALL lower offices are run and spent on less than their executives. I beg to question, why is there a great gap in salary and benefits between a lower and executive offices. The only difference between them is scope of execution after all.

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RAja Raman

Feb 10, 2019 01:43am

Irfan Sahib's analysis is to the point. Nowhere in the world, Chief Justice will run after collecting funds for dams and making headlines everyday, while millions of cases are piled up in lower courts. After retirement, he became damp squib. In the name of judicial activism, only thing that got achieved was publicity and free foreign trips.

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Ali Kazmi

Feb 10, 2019 02:19am

Everything except the looted wealth should have been the focus.

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Mazher Iqbal

Feb 10, 2019 02:20am

Article presents wrong information as facts & full of inconsistencies, just 1 example "he raised price of bottled water". No he started charging companies a minor amount for taking the countries water resources and bottling them up and sending the massive profits abroad as multinational companies do. Something the state should have done instead of taking kickbacks from such companies.

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Qamar

Feb 10, 2019 02:58am

CJ Saqib Nisar was a great CJ. He took on those who no one else dares to challenge. Thank you CJ Saqib Nisar for your service.

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FK

Feb 10, 2019 05:11am

@Riaz Ahmad, there are thieves and thugs in every institutions which no one has courage to touch.Until there is justice in every institution and justice across the board , Pakistan’s problems are not going to solve by selected justice.

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Pro

Feb 10, 2019 06:19am

The man is an icon. His accomplishments are impressive: overturning Asia Bibi’s death sentence: starting an accountibility drive netting crooks across the political spectrum; reclaiming state land from venal land grabbers — the list is impressive. OK he did overstep at times. But we have a dam fund - admittedly below expectations but money in state coffers nonetheless. And if he has shown up incompetent layers, judges and civil servants, what’s the harm in that. Even the much reviled suo motos have shaken up the system. Not a bad way to make a dent in the back-log of unresolved cases. He has notched his place the country’s history.

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khan

Feb 10, 2019 07:11am

So many "do it in 2 weeks" orders and never followed up.

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Zafar Ahmed

Feb 10, 2019 10:21am

He was never interested to bring reforms for a speedy justice system !

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Sfz

Feb 10, 2019 10:25am

Agree 100%. Had he tried to put his own house (judiciary) in order, a lot of other things would have improved.

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Naxalite

Feb 10, 2019 11:04am

You cannot make everyone happy

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Fareed N

Feb 10, 2019 05:01pm

Kudos to ex CJ . Whatever he was doing had to be done.
As you refer it as judicial activism, was necessary because all institutions laid dormant. Too many fires were burning in the different parts of the country, someone had to extinguish them. That is what he tried to do.

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Pathanoo

Feb 11, 2019 04:35am

Couldn't have said it any better myself. Felt as if I was reading my own words. Agree with every word.

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THE MORNING STAR

Feb 11, 2019 05:52am

How did a Government grade 22 officer gets a permanent vacation abroad. Assets beyond means!
Or did he win a big prize bond!

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HonorBright

Feb 11, 2019 08:53pm

Strengthening of institutions is something one hears so often without anyone's explaining how it is carried out. Reading this article one gets the impression that had it not been for the former chief justice our national institutions were on the verge of this mythical strengthening.

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HonorBright

Feb 11, 2019 08:56pm

The fact is that Saqib Nisar did what everyone else has long been doing in Pakistan: putting one's nose to places where it's none of its business to be, and this is something at which both our military and civilian leadership can boast long experience. Stop blaming an individual for the fault of his and everyone else' institutions.